Viking Supporters Co-operative
Viking Chat => Viking Chat => Topic started by: Usher wide. on November 05, 2024, 10:41:59 pm
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Were you taller than most for your age so could win every ball in the air that came your way in either box?
Was your trait in deadball situations where from corners you could pick out the lad above, or could you hit a free kick as if it had been launched like a cannonball?
Were you speedy? Head down, ball at your feet, keep pushing it on another 5 yards & nobody could catch you?
Was your trait agility & good handling which saw you a No.1 choice for the goalies jersey?
Whenever I was picked to stay over at Kingfisher Junior School to ‘trial’ for the school team at the age of nine, my ‘trait’ was to scuff my bare knees on the grass verges on the way home so that my mum could see I’d really tried my best & got stuck in.
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I was like Lewis Guy.
Great in training, kin useless when it mattered.
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Passing and shooting with good aim,I was usually chosen to take our pens too,due to having a good shot,only because I was'nt as fit as most others and learnt quickly that being good at passing meant I could get away without running as much, I like to think I was the Jan Molby of park football,in reality I was the Fat tw@t on the field!
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Pace, I started out at the back, I could usually give a striker a few yard start & still catch em, my youngest lad is the same but taller & even quicker.
Later it was my work rate, win the ball & give it to someone who could actually pass a ball
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Was the only player in the squad who could cross on the left foot, & was a bit quick, that's where my traits ended!!
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I was left footed, but definitely not good enough.
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I carried a mean orange
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Fast striker but i would score a worldie every now and again, but then miss badly from 2 yards out in most games!
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As our coach at Meccy 6th Form put it when he went round the pros and cons of every player in our side before the Donny Schools Cup Final:
Billy. He's as quick as anyone on the pitch. But not very good on the ball. So when he gets it, somebody offer him an easy pass.
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Was that Mr Bennett BST?
He had a big influence on Kitch at MGS, though he might have retired by your time.
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When I was young ....................... often it was my ball
When I was older ..........................getting in the first round of drinks :blush:
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Not joining the all night card game in the Abbey on a Saturday night was the main thing that got me in the team come Sunday morning.
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I was regarded as the double of Laurie Sheffield during our local Sunday morning kick-abouts. Often joined for the game by the illustrious company of Willie Watson, Alan Warboys, Dennis Leigh. The former describing one header I planted in the top corner following a free kick as the best he’d ever witnessed. The only difference between me and Laurie was that I couldn’t speak Welsh ! :) :) :woot: :thumbsup:
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The last time I played competitive football as a young un, I played for Jossey Lane juniors 1963 Gundry Shield final in goals, we lost 6-0 to Richmond Hill our team included Jimmy Golze and Kevin Johnson
Rugby it was at Don Valley back then and I didn't start playing football again until I was 18 do I still count as a young footballer?
Apart from the height all the othets fit me perfectly as I'm sure SS wlll confirm
:-]] :-)) ROFL Guffaw Guffaw
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Was that Mr Bennett BST?
He had a big influence on Kitch at MGS, though he might have retired by your time.
Yep it was. He was a cracking coach. Even got me playing half decent.
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Scawsby Steve had a style like Matthews.
... Not Stanley, Jessie.
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He had a good eye for talented skillfull footballers though........
Not sure what his other eye was good for though
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My best trait as a youngen was that I was super aggressive and never gave up.
If I knew I was having an off game, I made sure I bullied the centre halves.
As I got a bit older, that aggression often got the better of me. I got sent off three times in one season for fighting.
Loads of bans and fines and a letter from Sheffield & Hallamshire fa threatening me with a 5 year ban if I got sent off within two seasons made me calm down..........a bit.
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I was regarded as the double of Laurie Sheffield during our local Sunday morning kick-abouts. Often joined for the game by the illustrious company of Willie Watson, Alan Warboys, Dennis Leigh. The former describing one header I planted in the top corner following a free kick as the best he’d ever witnessed. The only difference between me and Laurie was that I couldn’t speak Welsh ! :) :) :woot: :thumbsup:
Was that on the Sandford Road pitches in Balby?
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Was that Mr Bennett BST?
He had a big influence on Kitch at MGS, though he might have retired by your time.
Yep it was. He was a cracking coach. Even got me playing half decent.
My walking pal Tony Marsh used to teach at MGS and was a big mate of ..was it Bob? Bennett.
I spoke to Kitch recently and he was full of praise for the help they gave him at school.
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Goalkeeper. Wanted to be Gordon Banks. Closer to Gordon the Gopher.
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I wasn’t very good at football either at school or as a Sunday morning pub player, ended up running/managing a couple of local teams but that stopped when the team was kicked out of the league for unpaid fines and bad discipline record, we something like 12 sending offs in the first 3 months of the season. The players got banned for the remainder of that season and were only allowed to play again when they had paid their split of the money owed. I wasn’t a signed on player so I got a ban for 18 months
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My best trait as a youngen was that I was super aggressive and never gave up.
If I knew I was having an off game, I made sure I bullied the centre halves.
As I got a bit older, that aggression often got the better of me. I got sent off three times in one season for fighting.
Loads of bans and fines and a letter from Sheffield & Hallamshire fa threatening me with a 5 year ban if I got sent off within two seasons made me calm down..........a bit.
Well that’s really something to be proud of. I was considered a dirty player due to my lack of skill I really regret that I didn’t have the skills of my team mates. But I suppose every team has their idiot.
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My best trait as a youngen was that I was super aggressive and never gave up.
If I knew I was having an off game, I made sure I bullied the centre halves.
As I got a bit older, that aggression often got the better of me. I got sent off three times in one season for fighting.
Loads of bans and fines and a letter from Sheffield & Hallamshire fa threatening me with a 5 year ban if I got sent off within two seasons made me calm down..........a bit.
Well that’s really something to be proud of. I was considered a dirty player due to my lack of skill I really regret that I didn’t have the skills of my team mates. But I suppose every team has their idiot.
Wow, hold your horses there buddy. It's not something I'm proud of, it's a story of mine sharing a bad side of me as a young man.
This was the 97/98 season, my grandad died in February 97 and looking back, my mental health was shattered.
I'd been physically abused by an evil bas**rd step dad as a nipper and my grandad was the only real man I'd ever loved, respected and trusted and then he was gone.
I was actually a decent player but I decided to share the jekyll and Hyde side of me rather gloat about how good I considered myself.
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I was regarded as the double of Laurie Sheffield during our local Sunday morning kick-abouts. Often joined for the game by the illustrious company of Willie Watson, Alan Warboys, Dennis Leigh. The former describing one header I planted in the top corner following a free kick as the best he’d ever witnessed. The only difference between me and Laurie was that I couldn’t speak Welsh ! :) :) :woot: :thumbsup:
Was that on the Sandford Road pitches in Balby?
It was. And occasionally in the play park off of Weston Road. I later played for Loversall Utd.
Didn’t you live in Herrick Gardens? Knocking on nearly 60 years ago now.:)
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I'm tall and could catch and drop kick the ball into the opposing penalty area (useful in the 60s). Naturally, therefore, I was told I was playing rugby at high school with a tubby kid with the agility of a plant pot (who was the nephew of the maths teacher) preferred in goal. Went on to play Saturday and Sunday league as a keeper for 20-plus years. Still playing well into my late 60s on the veterans' circuit.
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Being honest with myself, I'm fairly useless at football, certainly the foot to the ball bit and especially while I'm moving. Dribbling is something I was always better at from my mouth than with my feet.
I can hit a dead ball pretty well, so well that I was always decent with penalties or hitting a long free kick.
I was extremely fast over 30-40 yards but beyond that I slowed to a trot so I tended to stay in my own half.
I also had a good eye for the flight or movement of the ball so I made a decent enough keeper - except for my lack of height. That tracking of movement also meant I could head a ball well and I could judge the timing of a tackle reasonably well.
I've pretty much given up on ever making it professionally in the game, unless anyone needs a 60 year old keeper who is well off his best, way out of shape and only 5 and a half feet tall.
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I was regarded as the double of Laurie Sheffield during our local Sunday morning kick-abouts. Often joined for the game by the illustrious company of Willie Watson, Alan Warboys, Dennis Leigh. The former describing one header I planted in the top corner following a free kick as the best he’d ever witnessed. The only difference between me and Laurie was that I couldn’t speak Welsh ! :) :) :woot: :thumbsup:
Was that on the Sandford Road pitches in Balby?
It was. And occasionally in the play park off of Weston Road. I later played for Loversall Utd.
Didn’t you live in Herrick Gardens? Knocking on nearly 60 years ago now.:)
No, I lived on St. Catherine’s Ave. near Peglers. We occasionally played at Sandford Rd. but almost always on Westfield/Fisher’s Park. I was in the same year at Oswin Ave as Willie Watson and played with him.
A good mate, Malc. Redfern from Carr View Ave. was in the same intermediate team as Willie, Denis Lee and Coco Warboys as the other lads called him then. I know they used to play on Sandford Rd. sometimes in those days.
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Was that Mr Bennett BST?
He had a big influence on Kitch at MGS, though he might have retired by your time.
Yep it was. He was a cracking coach. Even got me playing half decent.
My walking pal Tony Marsh used to teach at MGS and was a big mate of ..was it Bob? Bennett.
I spoke to Kitch recently and he was full of praise for the help they gave him at school.
They had an amazing record as a school football team. Won the English Schools FA Cup in 1972 and made the semi in 75 and 77. If I remember correctly, the 77 team included Ian Banks who was a key player in the excellent Barnsley side of the early 80s, and went on to have 3-4 years in Div 1 with Leicester.
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I was left footed, but definitely not good enough.
I wasn’t left-footed, but could kick tolerably well with it at a time when football was a rather less fluid left-right sided game. It was a good thing really because I would never had got into the (junior school) team playing on the right.
Then I was forced into rugby - a mobile fighting match with an unpredictable ball and rules no one knew which was no good at all for a 6 stone weakling.
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Being honest with myself, I'm fairly useless at football, certainly the foot to the ball bit and especially while I'm moving. Dribbling is something I was always better at from my mouth than with my feet.
I can hit a dead ball pretty well, so well that I was always decent with penalties or hitting a long free kick.
I was extremely fast over 30-40 yards but beyond that I slowed to a trot so I tended to stay in my own half.
I also had a good eye for the flight or movement of the ball so I made a decent enough keeper - except for my lack of height. That tracking of movement also meant I could head a ball well and I could judge the timing of a tackle reasonably well.
I've pretty much given up on ever making it professionally in the game, unless anyone needs a 60 year old keeper who is well off his best, way out of shape and only 5 and a half feet tall.
You never know, think Scunny are recruiting.
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I've got a cracking left foot, shame my right foot is non-existent, I've got no pace, and my technique with everything else is awful. Other than that I could have made it! Ha
Love walking football now I'm over 40, takes away the problems of pace and technique
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Plenty of pace and had the ability to score goals .
I was taught the art of gambling in the box from a very experienced player when I was 18 years old , play between the width of the goalposts he'd say , just get in there and be first .
The other piece of advice I received from another player was always say to yourself if the ball came to me now what would I do , it kept you thinking and concentrating .
My flaws were don't ask me to track back , come back to defend corners or do the mucky stuff , I simply wasn't interested .
I only saw football going forward .
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Although a natural left-footer, I learnt to play with the right. I ended up being just about equally competent with both feet. When taking a penalty I used to decide which foot I'd use seconds before taking it.
Usually Playing on the left, I was quite fast. I'd cross the ball with my left, or sometimes I'd cut inside and shoot with my right.
Then tragedy struck. I was kicked on the inside of my left knee and was out for weeks. When I returned I was never the same player.
11 years old was far too young to have a career-destroying injury.
Alick Jeffrey and I have a hell of a lot in common!
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After an Uncle gave me some training on how to use both feet at about 9 years old whilst on holiday at Cleethorpes, .y left foot skills went on to be get me to play left back or left half for Hawthorn Juniors . Never had any pace though ( as an adult was later diagnosed as borderline asthmatic ) and the pitch seemed enormous. Played for the house team, Dalton , at Danum Grammar for the first couple of years as well, but don't ask about the inter House cross country round Sandall Beat , which was just a nightmare, where I was one of the stranglers coming in at the end.
Would have helped my self esteem though, had I known i had a disadvantage
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It was harder being left - footed than right footed back then. Probably still is. The reason being there were a lot more right-footed players than left-footed, meaning there was a bigger choice of right-footed players, resulting in right-footed players generally being of a higher standard.
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To quote Charlie Williams I weren't one of them fancy buggers but I could stop the ones who were. 6 feet tall, what I lacked in skills I made up for in physical strength. I was a wanna be striker but invariably awarded the right back position at varying levels of competition. University teams in UK, local amateur league and Manly and District league when in Sydney, Australia playing alongside some really top players, one of whom had played in the English 1st division before emigrating. I had a good right peg, could pick a pass and never failed to score from the penalty spot (blast it down the middle and watch the keeper dive the wrong way) When faced with defending against a really tricky forward of the Molyneux type my secret weapon was to get in their way as much as possible, bumping into them usually worked although I was never sent off in my 14 years of playing regularly.
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I was left footed and had good control and could pick out a pass. I played left wing/midfield. Not the best player by any means, but scored a couple of crackers each season. Played in the same team as Mark Atkins at U15 and U16 and he was miles ahead of everyone else.
I used to get tired a lot which I recently discovered was due to lung scarring that happened when I contacted pneumonia as a newborn. Limited my playing a bit later on.
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Excellent thread this btw. Some really good responses.
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Started off playing Rugby at St Petes, but soon realised that my Italian good looks and fantastic mullet were like a flashing beacon to opposing players! quick rethink required.
Ended up playing central midfield in the school team because we had a side almost full of shirkers who just couldn't get up and down the pitch, so i was tasked to do the hard yards and break up play which i was quite good at,with my Pirlo creative side in kept in reserve. My burning ambition at the time was to play up top but our striker, Riley, was absolutely massive and fast, just needed the ball in his general vicinity to beat any defender and always score, bit like a one man team.
St Petes loss was Hyde Park WMC's gain, as i settled into a decent combative midfielder, think Wellens but much better! until work commitments meant i couldn't make the weekend games anymore. Chopped off in my prime!
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Donnywolf once begged his school football coach to let him take a penalty. Reluctantly, his coach let him, but sadly the keeper sent him the wrong way.
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53 now and only stopped at lockdown!
Left footed 6"2 and never the best in school or in the navy teams(ships and Portsmouth command) and Sunday league thereafter military.
Best trait was speed physicality and stamina, I'd come into games from 60mins on! Although says more about the level I was at as if higher they wouldn't be blowing by 60!
Played with a few on here!? Riggo, Fal, big fat Yorkie pud ? Also went to Germany about 17yrs ago as a team formed by local businesses to play in a tournament in Hearten.
0 cardio now couldn't even be a last ten sub!
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Didn't anyone actually think they could make it as a pro ?
I'm not talking about your school days when we all believed we could make it .
I'm thinking offered a trial or actually on the books as an apprentice perhaps .
The nearest I got was a bloke who was involved with Emley came up to me after a game and invited me to go training up there for a couple of weeks two nights a week .
Emley were a decent non league side back then so it was a pretty big deal for me .
Any dreams of making it were put to bed after a couple of sessions up there , I hardly got a kick and the defenders just smashed me .
It was all over as quick as that .
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I know one on here who was "on the books" and surprisingly I know I was scouted but I never found out by who. It seems they gave up on me when one of our committee men told the scouts I was mid 20's when in fact I'd just invited everybody including him to my 21st just hours before!
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